Beer: Reviews & Ratings

the beer that started it all for sam adams. this beer started a beer revolution. this is a dark beer in every respect, this is a true beer drinkers beer. sam adams boston lager is a good beer, but once you have tryed it you have to try the other variaties to truely enjoy all sam adams has to offer. (299 characters)

I'm always partial to Sam Adams Boston Lager...it was the beer that moved me away from watered down mass domestic and into the Better Beer spectrum. The body is always a beautiful clear amber. The awesome boutique of Bavarian Hops greets your sense of smell. Then the best part is the balance between the hops and malt - one does not overpower the other. I love how the taste dances on your tongue once you've swallowed. Still the best Lager available on the market today. (472 characters)

Appearance: cherry wood, off white heads that hung around awhile, pretty
Aroma: bread, I frickin love it, like having a beer in a frickin bakery
Flavor: balance with a frickin capital "B", big malt up front with a hoppy little bite in the ass as you leave.
Mouthfeel: substantial, meaty but not overbearing.
Overall: it's no mystery why this beer is so frickin' popular, they hit on all bases. big enough taste for "serious" beer drinkers but won't scare away macro drinkers.

Addendum 3/19/04:
It's nice to retry a beer months after first reviewing it to see if your opinion has changed...it hasn't.
This beer is magnificent, the full flavors that don't overpower, the incredible balance. Highly underrated, probably due to it's availability and therefore loss of "hipness". This is one of the best beers in the world (826 characters)

Can't believe anyone could give this beer a low mark. It seems almost perfect to me. Rich complexity, great taste, good aroma..there is a lot happening in a Sam Adams BL- you taste pine, maybe a very slight citrus, wonderfully hoppy and a nice strong beer taste, and with all that, it still is simply beer as beer was meant to be. (330 characters)

I gotta say i love the hoppy taste and all of the nice flavor of this beer. It is strong. Tastes sweet and very delicious. Fruity Hops to me anyway dominate the experience in the taste. to me its fruity Hops And i get a malt taste. Unlike coors light, which is what i drink all the time, it has a taste to it that is distinguishable. I like this more. It is Something beer geeks could appreciate. I taste the hops, unlike with budweiser or the AALs. The AALs taste like corn and barley and things like that. This tastes Different. Its been a while since i had it but it tastes like caramel malts with hops. Best i've had besides guinness blue moon and Bourbon stouts. (667 characters)

SABL is the best American beer, period. Anyone giving less than perfect marks to this brew is disingenuous, snobbish, has clearly lascivous tendencies, and is completely undeserving of the freedoms provided by the God-blessed US of A.

Out of a Bottle this is Some of the best dark Lager I've ever had. Out of a can its too carbonated. Good beer. bought a can for 1.00 recently. Some good stuff. Bought in a quest to find the best beer at my gas station. Between this lager, and sierra nevada's pale ale. We have a lager winner and a Ale winner. Blue moon belgian white is better than the shock top equivalent. Over all good buy and an excellent buy for the money. Enjoyable and just easy drinking lager. this is something i would keep around. Beats anything else besides the sierra nevada. Over all a 5 out of 5. Excellent quality at a low price. After all, SA started the craft revolution. Considering this is my first craft style lager, its better than all the Bud miller and coors lagers. (757 characters)

The famous BBC's Boston Lager is truly a classic beer. I do remember it being a lot heartier in the old days, but maybe it is just my palate that has changed. Either way, I revisit it often and enjoy the beer immensely. It pours a nice amber color and has the trademark thick foamy head that you can float a bottle cap on. The aroma is a truly great mix of noble hops, Hallertau Mittelfruh and Tettnang Tettnanger, and wonderful sweet and malty. The flavor is every bit as good as the aroma and the floral hoppiness is in the forefront and the heavy sweet malty backbone melds the experience into a mind blowing taste nirvana... Ok, maybe that is going too far, but I love this beer and hold it dear to my heart, even though it has become a tad cliche. Once again I thank Jim Koch and the BBC. (793 characters)

Recently had this on tap at the Washington D.C. airport on a layover to fly to Germany. While I had many awesome beers in Munich, having Samuel Adams Boston Lager is honstly one of my top tasting beer experiences of the vacation.

Unfortunately, you can't find Sam Adams on tap hardly anywhere here in Texas, so having it on tap on the east coast was a real treat.

Anyway, the beer was served in a nice room temperature pint glass. It poured a beautiful copper golden color. Upon the first sniff, my first thought was this batch is as fresh as it comes. The beer had a wonderful mix of grassy hops and slightly sweet malt with floral hops. Upon the first sip, I tasted all of these things coming together with a great amount of balance. One of my favorite things about this brew is that it has a slight sweet maltness that quickly transitions to a nice complex floral, grass hop flavor. I can't imagine a beer being more balanced. This is also an excellent brew because it is very complex, but at the same time highly drinkable for almost any occassion.

Macro, micro, who cares? The BBC brews exceptionally good beer. And for all of you that say an exceptional brew must be hard to find, you need to really give Sam Adams a try and think about why some "micro breweries" might not have their beers as widely available. While in Germany, I tasted great beers, but most of them were honestly right up there but not quite as good as Sam Adams. As for the tiny breweries, I have tasted some brews this good, but they were few and far between. This is the first beer I have ever given a 5 rating on taste. While I love Sam Adams out of the bottle, having this on tap is simply the best. I only wish more places here in central Texas would realize this. (1,757 characters)

I gave this beer the top rating because it is by far my favorite all around beer. Tour the brewery once and you will realize how much time and dedication Jim Koch put's into his beer. I am sure most have had this so I wll save the description but I could drink this for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Stunning! (308 characters)

Taste - Starts off with a malty sweetness, then the grassy, floral hop spice comes in. I get lots of nice caramel and toasted maltiness throughout. And then at the end, the hops fade, and the taste transitions to more maltiness, and a creamy aftertaste.

This is by far the best American style lager I have had. Maybe they should change the name to Samuel Adams "Perfect Balance". Balance between malt and hops are amazing and hit at the just the right time, neither being overpowering. Carbonation is spot on as well. This is definitely my year-round go to beer. I like a few other SA beers but it's often hard to beat the original, a true American staple I'm proud to drink! (421 characters)

This is the beer that started me and many others to sample and seek "beyond Bud", and after 23 years of consistency I've come to realize just how well Sam Adams goes with food of all types. This vienna lager pours amber, a very rare style in American craft brewing, but seems taken for granted of late. The aroma is alone in the beer world as it is an unforgettable recipe of noble hops. The taste is of balance, but when paired with food the caramel flavors work well with seared, grilled or roasted meats, fish and vegetables. The noble hop aroma and dry finish act as an herbal finish, thus complimenting anything from the main course to side dishes. In the New England area Sam Adams lager is found everywhere from sub shops to chinese restaurants and Italian restaurants and is established in many restaurant chains. In my experience this beer has even saved many dull meals that would not have been as enjoyable if I didn't have Sammy to wash it down. A Boston, New England, American, and now world classic. (1,013 characters)

This beer has a very nice color to it and a very nice rich head that stays for awhile. There is a rich and creamy taste that hits the tounge all at once and stays for some time. I do enjot the aroma and the headyness of this beer, I could enjoy this beer with a nice steak or grilled salmon. (291 characters)

I had stayed away from this beer for a long time in favor of the smaller micros. But recently it has been my favorite drink. I use the Sam Adams glasses, and I thought they were nice looking and maybe not much more. However, I just had this beer on tap in a plain pint, and I have to admit that neither the taste nor the smell of the hops was nearly as good. In the Sam glasses, the color is lovely, and the column of bubbles coming up from the center looks nice. More important it keeps a small head and aroma from beginning to end. The dry hopped Hallertauer hops are very nice, and the bitterness nicely matches the sweetness of the Vienna style malt. Just wonderful. (670 characters)

Had this on tap at the BW3's in columbus, and all i can say is wow. This beer is outstanding. The appearance was a nice dark amber color. The smell was outstanding, you can smell the presense of hops and a maltiness to it. The taste is great, that's all i can say. A beer i can definitely have for the rest of my life. Cheers Jim Koch!!! =) (340 characters)

A: Pours a beautiful golden amber color - great, fluffy head that lingers for quite a while. Plenty of nice lacing left behind on the glass. I've yet to attempt to float a bottle cap on the head, however.

S: Breathed in a fantastic aroma. The large amount of hops used is clearly present in the scent, nice floral and citrus notes are also present. Can't wait for it.

T: In a word, perfection. Fantastic balance of hops and malt. Full flavored with a hint of citrus and and a nice spiciness as well. Rich and complex - a truly fantastic experience for your palate. It's not hard to see why it won Best Beer in America less than a year after Jim Koch re-discovered the recipe.

M: Medium-bodied, very well rounded and smooth. Moderate amount of carbonation, finishes very clean.

D: Fantastic drinkability, and incredibly refreshing. You'll want to have another, it certainly isn't hard to drink a few of these. This is a great session beer.

Forget Budweiser - Boston Lager is the Great American Lager. If I had to choose one beer to have for the rest of my life, it would be Samuel Adams Boston Lager. My sincere thanks go to BBC founder Jim Koch. Cheers! (1,230 characters)

One of the most underappreciated beers out there. This bottled version pours an autumn gold color, very deep gold. Impressive white head that retains well.

Aroma is on the floral hoppy side, but it doesn't suggest that the beer is for hopheads, nor does it scare away the hop-newbies. This beer is about balance, and the aroma achieves this admirably. The hoppiness has a pleasant steel-y metallic aroma, along with fresh bread notes in the mix, maybe even biscuits. On a hot day this is one of the most appetizing beers I reach for.

On the palate this beer welcomes you warmly with that vienna style maltiness, light caramel, but wait, the hops assert themselves to compliment the malty character... leaving you to focus on the oily hops, but then there's the malt again... and so on. I detect a citrusy character as well, but more floral and pleasant metallic flavors.

Medium to full bodied Vienna style lager. Good body, but still refreshing and drinkable. The best of both worlds. This is a beer you can savor and contemplate, but also enjoy regularly with good availability. This is probably the best domestic craft beer in the vienna lager category, hands down.

Beer Snobs, please set aside your elitism and look at this beer for what it is, despite its near "macro" status today. (1,291 characters)

Pros: its a damn good beer and i usually hate beer, the taste and aroma are well just right not to many hops and no horrible after taste. Lets see,well here are the cons, The price is just way to high and didnt like the pull off capthats it (290 characters)

Soft snow-white inch-thick head in a lager glass; beatuiful Brussels lace on the tracings....body shifts in light from brown-orange to orange-yellow--affecting...for a lager, quite hoppy...the balance is attractive...full-bodied and effervescent body...outstanding mouthfeel holds the tongue and lays the flavor on...best compliment to a lager: you could down a 12-pack easily (in any month or season), but the taste makes you slow down in respect...Ive had this at parties too many times IN A BOTTLE, which sucked much of my ambition to drink it; in a glass, however, as a session beer, MUCH different--and my brother Jer tells me in the specially engineered glass Sam Adams sells, the bouquet and experience are multiplied exponentially...tough to believe after half a glass. And I NEVER call out others tastes, but after looking at the average rating on this site, I cannot imagine what other beer drinkers are looking for...I apologize to Mr. Koch and all his staff. Beautiful job, gentlemen. (1,000 characters)